I was a travel consultant for 5 years — here are the 9 best ways I saved money on travel

As a travel consultant, I helped clients find traveling options based on their schedules and budgets.

I learned several money-saving tricks along the way, and I still use them when I'm booking my own travel.

The tricks include strategically mixing and matching your flight itineraries, waiting to book my flight until the perfect time, and joining AAA for the hotel discounts.

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Most people would like to travel more than they do, but because of the costs, decide to stay closer to home.

But traveling doesn't have to be expensive.

As a travel consultant for five years, I helped clients find the best traveling options based on their schedules, budgets, and other needs. Along the way, I discovered plenty of tricks to save money on my own travels, which I continue to use to this day.

While you are probably aware of common money-saving tricks like joining a frequent flyer program or booking an Airbnb instead of a hotel, you might not be aware of some lesser-known strategies.

Here are nine of the best ways to save money while traveling that I learned on the job.